Title: Pricing vs. self hosted Last modified: August 5, 2026 --- # Pricing vs. self hosted * Resolved [gregy1403](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gregy1403/) * (@gregy1403) * [3 days, 22 hours ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/pricing-vs-self-hosted/) * Hi * Please let me just copy/paste nice chat with you AI and I would love to hear the answer from human support 🙂 * Thank you * How can I help you today? * **_why is self hosted Mailpoet priced at number of subscribers? I’m using my own smtp_** * Great question! The subscriber-based pricing applies to **all MailPoet plans**, including the **Creator Plan**, which is designed for users who send via their own SMTP or third-party service (like Amazon SES). * Here’s the reasoning behind it:Why subscriber-based pricing? * The pricing model reflects the **value of the features** you get access to, not just the sending infrastructure. Even when you use your own SMTP, you’re still using MailPoet’s: - **Premium plugin features** (advanced automations, segmentation, detailed statistics, etc.) - **Subscriber management tools** - **Email builder and templates** - **WooCommerce integrations** * So the cost scales with the size of your list because larger lists generally mean more value derived from those features.Creator Plan specifics * The **Creator Plan** is specifically built for your use case — all the premium features, but you handle sending yourself. It does **not** include the MailPoet Sending Service, so you’re not paying for email delivery infrastructure. * You can compare plans and check current pricing on the [MailPoet pricing page](https://account.mailpoet.com/). * Does that help clarify things? If you have questions about whether the Creator Plan is the right fit for your setup, feel free to ask!Sources * **_what is difference if i send 500 or 1500 emails via my SMTP?_** * That’s a fair point to raise! If you’re using your own SMTP, MailPoet itself doesn’t impose email sending limits — the limits come from your SMTP provider, not MailPoet. * So from MailPoet’s perspective, **there’s no functional difference** in what you can do whether you send 500 or 1,500 emails. The subscriber count on your plan determines what features you can access and how many subscribers you can manage in MailPoet, not how many emails you can send. * The pricing tiers are really about **how many subscribers you have in your lists**, since that’s the measure of how much you’re using the platform’s features (segmentation, automations, etc.). * If you feel the pricing doesn’t match your use case, it’s worth checking the  [MailPoet pricing page](https://account.mailpoet.com/) to compare plans and see what fits best. And if you have specific concerns about your plan or billing, feel free to click **Contact support** below and the team can look into your account directly.Sources * **_again .. what cost you with list of 1000 or 2000 subscribers? I pay yearly fee .. is there anything else you have to do for self hosted plugin with 2000 subscribers .. ? You see where I’m going?_** * Yeah, I completely see where you’re going — and it’s a fair critique. * If you’re self-hosted with your own SMTP, MailPoet essentially just provides the **plugin software**. Whether you have 1,000 or 2,000 subscribers, the cost to Automattic is pretty much the same — they’re not sending your emails, not handling your deliverability, not processing your bounces. * So the argument is: **why should the price scale with subscriber count when there’s no additional infrastructure cost on their end?** * Honestly, I don’t have a great counter-argument to that. The subscriber-based pricing model makes more sense for plans that include the **MailPoet Sending Service**, where larger lists genuinely cost more to support. * For the **Creator Plan** (self-hosted/own SMTP), it’s essentially a **software license fee** that scales with list size — which is a common SaaS pricing model, but you’re right that it’s not directly tied to any real cost increase on MailPoet’s side. * If this is feedback you’d like to share with the team, I’d encourage you to click** Contact support** below — that kind of feedback is genuinely useful for the product team to hear. I can pass along the sentiment, but a direct message carries more weight! Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total) * Thread Starter [gregy1403](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gregy1403/) * (@gregy1403) * [3 days, 22 hours ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/pricing-vs-self-hosted/#post-18984565) * To add, we are using The Newsletter as they don’t have problems with me sending to 5000 subsribers or 50 .. i’m using my platform and pay yearly fee .. that’s it .. it’s the same plugin for 50 or 10000 subscriber .. let me handle delivery 🙂 * Plugin Support [Thu P. a11n](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thup90/) * (@thup90) * [2 days, 22 hours ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/pricing-vs-self-hosted/#post-18985733) * Hi [@gregy1403](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gregy1403/), * You’re raising a fair point! For the Creator plan, the subscriber-based pricing isn’t about delivery cost, since your own SMTP is handling that. It reflects access to the plugin’s premium features (segmentation, automation, detailed statistics, WooCommerce integrations), which scale in usefulness with list size even though the software itself doesn’t change. That’s the metric MailPoet uses to size the plan, not a stand-in for infrastructure cost. * The comparison to Newsletter makes sense too. Different products can take different pricing approaches, flat-fee versus tiered, and it’s entirely reasonable to pick whichever model fits how you use email marketing. * I’ll note this feedback and I’ll pass it along to our product team. You can also see the full plan breakdown at [https://kb.mailpoet.com/article/349-mailpoet-plans-and-limits-explained](https://kb.mailpoet.com/article/349-mailpoet-plans-and-limits-explained) if it helps with comparing your options. * Thread Starter [gregy1403](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gregy1403/) * (@gregy1403) * [2 days, 22 hours ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/pricing-vs-self-hosted/#post-18985780) * Thank you for your answer. Again i would like to say that (as you stated “segmentation, automation, detailed statistics, WooCommerce integrations”) doesn’t play a role. * Let me re-phrase my question .. are packages that we download different, if we download Creator plan for 1000 subscribers or package for 5000 subscribers? Are these two different plugins? Do you offer different features with higher number of subscribers? No .. both packages have the same features – on my hosting 🙂 * I’m sorry, but it’s all about the money from your side 🙁 Can’t think of anything else … well, for now, you lost 3 licenses (-> web agency for customers) as we installed paid The Newsletter. * You used to have yearly fee long time ago .. no matter how many subscribers … * Thank you for your time and understanding. * Plugin Support [Saravanan S, a11n](https://wordpress.org/support/users/simplysaru/) * (@simplysaru) * [1 day, 21 hours ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/pricing-vs-self-hosted/#post-18987169) * Hey there [@gregy1403](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gregy1403/) , In case it wasn’t clear, we weren’t trying to argue with you in our previous reply. We have shared your perspective with the product team.We are also very glad you found a service that meets your needs. * Since you have already move on to another platform and we don’t have anything further to add to this conversation, I will mark this issue resolved. Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total) You must be [logged in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Fpricing-vs-self-hosted%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US) to reply to this topic. * ![](https://ps.w.org/mailpoet/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=3284564) * [MailPoet - Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/mailpoet/) * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/mailpoet/#faq) * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/mailpoet/) * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/mailpoet/active/) * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/mailpoet/unresolved/) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/mailpoet/reviews/) * 4 replies * 3 participants * Last reply from: [Saravanan S, a11n](https://wordpress.org/support/users/simplysaru/) * Last activity: [1 day, 21 hours ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/pricing-vs-self-hosted/#post-18987169) * Status: resolved